Do you guys know who Ronda Rousey is? She’s the #1 female athlete in the world, she’s a UFC competitor, and she’s got an awesome book out, Rousey, that’s all about being true to yourself and doing the right thing no matter what you feel like.

I’m so loving it! Here’s a quote from the book, “My mom always says that to be the best in the world, you have to be good enough to win on a bad day because you never know if the Olympics are going to fall on a bad day.”

I’m not going to the Olympics, but I still love this quote. For me, I just think of every day as my Olympics; I need to be my best everyday, no matter what. I’ve got kids and a husband and clients and people who take my classes and they all expect me to bring it; and since I’m being paid (by some of them), I better!

It’s all about a mindset. We either develop a mindset that powers us along towards our goals, or who we want to be; or we feed the mindset that says we can jump off our path every time we have a bad day, a bad moment, or a bad feeling.

Since I’m all about nutrition and wellness, let’s go there.

Our level of health, our energy, our weight, they’re (mostly) a direct reflection of our every day life style habits and actions.

If we let a bad day be an excuse to eat crap, not workout, and feed the whiny -victim part of our soul, even if it’s just a day or two a week, we’re in trouble. A healthy, fit body means that we do the right thing on good days and bad days.

Moms and dads, isn’t this what we expect from our kids? Or at least hope for our kids? That they still do well on their tests, or with their friends, or in their sports, despite bad days?

We’re they’re primary role models; it’s important that we model being our best on a bad day.

What if you’ve conditioned yourself to roll with your bad days, if it’s a norm for you to allow your bad feelings to dictate your actions and choices? Don’t worry! People change all the time, you can too. It takes a plan and a focused effort, but if you start now, you could be a whole new you by Christmas.

Purposely fill your mind with information that reinforces 2 things,

1) The fact that our body needs to move Every. Single. Day. A lot. We don’t have to “workout”, but we do need to move. Sitting’s the new smoking. Our body – and our brain – were created to be strengthened and made normal/healthy/functional through movement. Can’t get to the gym? Do a 15 minute yoga workout/HITT workout at home, or a cardio machine w/ plank intervals or sprint up and down your driveway/yard/street 5 times. Walk the stairs at your office, squat for 1 minute every hour,……. do something.

Remember, the Centenarians in the Blue Zones – the longest lived people in the world – don’t “workout”, they walk, they garden, they ride bikes to work,… they move.

I know I keep talking about my FitBit, but I’ll tell you, those things work!! I have consciously/unconsciously worked a whole bunch more steps into my every day life, usually without thinking about it.

Sometimes I do think about it though. Whenever I water the horses, or walk my little dog Reese, I jog in place. If it’s getting late and I’m not to 10,000 steps, I jog in place. But I’m having to do that less and less because I’m hitting 10,000 steps more and more often before dinner.

2) the power of Food as Medicine. Make this belief as powerful and natural as possible so that Will Power – which is limited – isn’t necessary.

There’s a great saying, ” Food can be the most powerful form of medicine, or the slowest form of poison.” I want you to look at healthy fats and vegetables and clean proteins and fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices and literally be excited. And I want you to look at processed food like an old, dirty cigarette butt lying on the side walk, smushed onto a piece of old gum. You’d NEVER put that in your mouth, it’s disgusting!

It’s all about our perspective, right? Yesterday I was at the Natural Market to have lunch with Shelby. While I was waiting, a couple came in and looked around. They looked in the fridge, they looked at the menu… the guy had such a sour look on his face he looked like he’d sucked on a lemon. He made disparaging remarks about the green wraps, and how nothing looked good to him.

His wife said, “We’re only here because you said you wanted to get healthy.” And he said, “Yeah, but I didn’t want to eat this kind of stuff.”

They left. They should have stayed! The food there is AMAZING and delicious and Real.

Also, everything about him said “heart attack waiting to happen”, but I digress.

Here’s some ammo for the Food Is Medicine part of your brain we’re trying to grow. This is a recent article from the British Medical Journal preaching the science behind food quality when it comes to health, weight, and mortality.

Honestly, this article is fantastic. It points to study after study proving the positive results of Real Whole Food on heart disease and diabetes.

The 3 co-authoring doctors use a lot of data – data we won’t hear from Main Stream Medicine – to tout the benefits of eating food for it’s nutrients, not it’s calorie count. The research is clear and definitive: if we want to get healthy/be a normal weight/have less risk of dying from a disease, Real Whole Food trumps medicine and “dieting” by a long shot.

I’m attaching a link to the entire article, but in case you don’t have time to read the whole thing, here’s a few highlights:

* An energy/calorie unrestricted diet supplemented with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and nuts achieved a 30% reduction in cardiovascular events in over 7,500 high risk individuals – within 3 months.

* In comparison with an American Heart Association “low fat” diet, a Mediterranean diet – post heart attack – is a more powerful coronary intervention tool for mortality than aspirin, statins, or stents.

* The weight loss industry makes $58 BILLION annually in the US, yet all long-term follow up studies reveal that the majority of individuals (almost 100%) regain their lost weight; about 50% gain more than they lost.

I want to end this with a word on Dieting. Mini meals, special diet foods, diet pills, diet drinks, diet plans…. they make you CRAZY. It seems like such a great idea: something that makes you full, takes away your hunger, and still enables you to have your favorite foods ( processed diet food is a multi-billion dollar industry), but dieting doesn’t work in the long run; sometimes it doesn’t work in the short term either.

Weight loss happens when our body becomes NORMAL from eating Real Whole Food. Diets are anything but Normal. Diets are ABNORMAL. Jump off the Diet Roller Coaster! It’s all been a big hoax and a scheme for companies to make money off us, and it’s worked. The more we diet, the bigger and more addicted to food we get.

Take back your life and your health and your energy. Move, eat Real Whole Food, quit being afraid of healthy, real, fats. Stop counting calories. Examine the nutrients in foods and relate them to your body and how those nutrients affect you.

You can do this! I said above, start today, and be a whole new you by Christmas. It can happen! If you need help, get in touch with me. Lots of people change, you can too.

Family get together last night:) That’s my dad, my mom, and my Uncle Fred, my 3 sisters, 2 of my daughters, and a few nieces and nephews.

Recently, Consumer Reports came out with data that had many people scared to eat meat. The Report found that beef does indeed contain bacteria that can become pathogenic, like e coli and salmonella. The report also found pretty big differences in the amount of bacteria, and anti-biotic resistant bacteria, in CAFO cattle (cattle raised in feed lots), compared to cattle raised on grass; grass fed steers had less bacteria in the finished product.

Comments at the end of articles and on social media had people claiming that this would be the end of their meat eating as obviously, meat was just crawling with germs.

More bad news: beards are loaded with poop. Actually, germs are literally everywhere: our kitchens, our phones, our toothbrushes, toys, sponges, towels..From Philip Tierno, a microbiologist at NYU, and author of The Secret Life of Germs: “To focus on beards is to miss the point. We, as a society, are literally bathed in feces,” Tierno said. “Wherever a man touches, there are feces and fecal organisms present.” Even to focus on toilets is to sort of miss the point: One study compared surfaces in the bathrooms and kitchens of 15 homes and found that the toilet was among the least bacteria-laden places tested.

Here’s the bottom line, bacteria are EVERYWHERE. We have a few pounds of it on ourselves, and in ourselves. It’s time to quit being scared of germs, and instead make sure our MicroBiome is healthy and cared for. Apparently, our personal ecosystem is like a garden, and we either feed and water it correctly and give it plenty of sunshine (yep!), so it works for us; or we ruin it with a diet of sugar, processed food chemicals, and a bad lifestyle (no sleep, no exercise, no sun) and get sick, sad, and fat.

Back to the beef: the boogy-man is us. Really. For the most part, we either make ourselves strong, and help our children develop habits and patterns that make them strong, or we make ourselves weak. The choice is ours.

Confession: Headaches and Migraines aren’t an issue I’ve struggled with very much. Until 3 years ago, I’d only had 2 migraines, and a handful of headaches. Then Menopause hit, or rather the tail end of Peri Menopause, and wow, I got a serious taste of some serious headaches.

For me, it was a matter of getting my hormones tested, and getting on some bio-identical estrogen and progesterone for a year. The headaches stopped immediately. After a year, I went off both because subsequent testing showed that my hormones levels had gone from way too low to way too high. I went cold turkey on the hormones out of fear, got on some great herbs, and all was well,…for a while. Then the headaches came back.

A hormone test (January 2015) showed that my high levels had plummeted way back down to those of old Mother Hubbard, so this time I went on a natural progesterone cream(February, 2015), and added flax (oil and seed) very consistently to my diet to up my estrogen level naturally. I’m due for another test soon, and I’ll let you know what my results are, but I haven’t had a headache since February.

Point of my story: my headaches were hormone related.

What causes yours and what can you do about them? You’re gonna need to put on your detective hat, because this is a condition that has so many causes and triggers. Drugs are a bandaid at best, as they often don’t even work well with migraines; they don’t eliminate the cause of the pain, and they come with too many side effects to ignore.

Those side effects are real and scary. It’s worth the time and effort to figure out your migraine and headache causes, and then experiment with different solutions.

You already have my hormone/headache story. If your headaches are completely centered around your cycle, no matter your age, then you can assume it has something to do with your hormones. This doesn’t mean – at all – that you need to start taking hormones! That’s something for you and your doctor to figure out.

There’s other responses that could be triggering the headache (and cravings and PMS too): low B vitamins, and low magnesium. Both of which get depleted during our period. (or I should say, your period) B6 and B12 are the most commonly sited Bs when it comes to our hormones shifting and symptoms, but I recommend a good B Complex to every woman I work with. Magnesium too; as a matter of fact, Magnesium deficiency is very common. Studies show that at least 56% of our population is Magnesium deficient, but my point with Magnesium and female cycles, is that it’s easy to become deficient right before your period, even if you aren’t usually.

So B vitamins and Magnesium, recommendations 1 and 2. (These are the 2 supplements I have my girls on.)

Next, look at your life style patterns. Do you sleep enough? Do you drink alcohol? What drugs are you on? Trigger, trigger, trigger.

Here’s a biggie: do you eat gluten, or a high refined carbohydrate diet? Both can be HUGE headache/migraine triggers. For a one stop shop on this, check out the Wheat Belly blog.

Even healthy foods can trigger headaches for certain people; foods like eggs, dairy, nuts, …..pretty common allergens, and allergens can cause headaches.

One of my favorite go-to’s is America’s Pharmacist, Suzy Cohen. That woman’s awesome, and prolific with both her free advice and books, so let’s start there.

Resources: Her book, called Headache Free. A podcast where she dispenses all sorts of great advice, here. Her response to a question about tension headaches, here. Her blog, here. And finally, a great article kind of wrapping up a whole bunch of her advice on headaches, here.

One last trick to try when it comes to headaches, a Liver Detox. If you work with me, you know that I believe in always “loving my liver”. I’m constantly taking dandelion or milk thistle, or doing a Biotics liver detox or taking Herb Pharm Liver tincture. I also make sure to eat plenty of liver loving foods every single day.

If our liver is so overwhelmed with chemicals and toxins and sludge from high fructose corn syrup or trans fats or SUGAR, then of course it’s unable to perform perfectly. One of the results from that would be toxins circulating through our brain and causing headaches.

You don’t have to suffer! What I said in the beginning is true: become a detective. Headache meds are band aides with side effects. Figure out your causes, and then work on natural and healthy ways to eliminate them.

86% of our health care expenses are spent on Life Style Diseases, like headaches and migraines. That’s actually great news, because we can fix our life style and positively effect our health.

Mark and I are on a Healthy Heart Weekend: paddle-boarding, sight seeing, and a Marriage Conference with Dr. Gary Chapman of the 5 Love Languages. We’ve slept in 2 different hotels in 2 days, but we packed all our food, so we’ve managed to eat well, move a lot, and do some Positive Thinking. In other words, we’re traveling healthy. I get a lot of emails and questions about traveling, and I want to answer them with a leaning towards Heart Health.

Heart Disease is the #1 killer in America, and it’s something we should all be working to prevent. It’s showing up in children now – moms, here’s where we step in.

Heart disease is a LIFESTYLE DISEASE. High blood pressure, plaque, heavy-dense cholesterol, high blood sugar, hard arteries….. these are caused by the what we put in our mouth, the exercise we don’t get, and the stress we don’t manage.

No one has heart disease because they’re low in statins.

Whether we’re traveling or home, it’s important to take the steps to make our body healthy.

Let’s start with food. Our heart primarily runs on fatty acids for fuel. Surprising? It’s the truth, so feed your heart healthy fats! Have you read that the new Dietary Guidelines will “un-vilify” cholesterol as a cause of heart disease? It’s true!

“Previously the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommended that cholesterol intake be limited to no more than 300 mg/day. The 2015 DGAC (Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee) will not bring forward this recommendation because available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol, consistent with the conclusions of the AHA/ACC (American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology report. Cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.”

What about the fact that Saturated Fat has NEVER been scientifically proven to cause heart disease?

“Saturated fat has remained the main dietary villain for heart disease for over 50 years. Last year a meta-analysis of 72 studies with more than 600,000 participants determined that there was no association between how much saturated fat people ate and their risk of having a fatal or nonfatal heart attack (Annals of Internal Medicine, March 18, 2014).”

This isn’t carte blanche to eat any thing we want. Fats are very unique and different; some are great, some are good, and some are horrible.

The heart also loves amino acids/protein (it is a muscle after all, and needs to rebuild it’s cells), and vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients.

You know how I always say “eat a TON of vegetables”? Herbs and spices too; Moms, stay strong when it comes to vegetables and picky kids. You’ve GOT to win this battle. Here’s why.

The heart (and the arteries in the penis, the neurotransmitters in the brain, the lining of the gut, bone remodeling, and white blood cell function) heavily depends on Nitric Oxide (NO). NO is a vasodilator that relaxes the lining of the arteries and increases blood flow. If there’s any damage to the arteries at all, which is where a lot of that NO is made, then there’s NO deficiency.

Here’s a list of foods high in natural nitrates ( which convert to NO):

Cool fact: chew your food well, because it’s the bacteria in our mouth that convert the nitrates to NO – who knew!!!

We want to leverage all the colors of the vegetable (and fruit) kingdom, because they have nutrients, besides their vitamins and minerals which are vital, called phytonutrients, that scientists are really just beginning to discover. Nutrients called lycopene, lutein, alpha carotene, and beta carotene.

Studies show that bodies with higher levels of these nutrients have less stroke and heart attack.

Exercise: almost as critical for the heart as food. Have I told you I LOVE MY FITBIT?? Even on days like yesterday, where we were in a seminar from 9 to 3:30, we managed to get over 10,000 steps in. We walked on each break, plus lunch, and again after dinner. Had I not had the Fitbit, we’d never had taken that many steps. Most phones have counters on them if you don’t have a smart watch yet. Friday we paddle boarded a few miles, and then walked a battlefield and Civil War Park. Links are attached if you’re looking for fun in Richmond, Va. Today: lifting with Macy at the VCU gym!

5 Love Languages – for heart health? YES! Have you ever read the book, The Blue Zones? It’s about the 4 places on earth with the largest populations of centenarians, or people who live past 100. I’ve been obsessed with it for years, the same with any story I see of a Centenarian, or studies on Centenarians.

What do these people have in common, is it Kale Smoothies or Cross Fit or Veganism? NOPE! The biggest common link is community, usefulness, and purpose. In other words, they’re fulfilled and happy. They have love in their life.

That’s where the 5 Love Languages comes in. Mark and I are regular pursuers of both Happy Marriage and Happy Minds. I say “pursuer” because happiness doesn’t just drop on our heads, it’s something we have to focus on and work for. That’s really what “stress management” is about, right? It’s how we handle life that matters, and the 5 Love Languages has great advice for communicating and getting along.

On that note, our heart apparently THRIVES on happy hormones and chemicals, and can be destroyed by destructive hormones (cortisol and insulin) and chemicals. This is a big deal, and an area of growing research.

Meditation is part of progressive heart disease reversal programs because it’s been proven again and again to work. There’s too much evidence to ignore: if leading with our negative emotions is our normal go-to, then all the good food and exercise in the world could be negated when it comes to heart health.

I’m leaving you with a few really great heart health resources, please check them out. What we hear in our doctors offices often doesn’t correlate with the latest in the scientific research.

Most research on reversing heart disease, (not merely managing symptoms) is based on Life Style answers, like food, exercise, stress management, and sleep.

NO ONE’S MAKING MONEY OFF THOSE REMEDIES; the likely hood of a stress management rep, or a Real Whole Food rep, walking into our doctors office to sell him/her on the latest and greatest reasons to use these tools isn’t going to happen.

August 16, 2015 /
Debbie / Comments Off on I LOVE Essential Oils! From Skin Care to Fighting Virus and Bacteria, They’re Fantastic.

We’re living in a world of rampant illness; 70% of us are are both overweight, and on at least one medication. 70%. The good news: 86% of those meds (and the money spent on them), are for Life Style Conditions. That means we could reverse or at least lessen the condition through Life Style.

Because we can control our life style; we have tremendous power to improve our immunity, our mood, our energy, and our weight with the steps we take to be healthy every single day.

Here’s the thing: good health isn’t going to fall on our heads like rain, we have to pursue it. Essential oils (EOs) are a great tool in that pursuit. Here’s how my family and I use EOs.

Mea Culpa: a couple of years ago, way after I was deeply into real whole foods, stress management, and using herbs and supplements instead of drugs, I was a total skeptic when it came to essential oils. I knew nothing about them – I’M STILL LEARNING/NOT AN EXPERT AT ALL.

I’m not a doctor, and I’m not pretending to be one. My General Practitioner probably wouldn’t use an Essential Oil if you paid him. But I do.

And I love them! EO’s are amazing!! The more I read and learn and use them, the more convinced I am that we sure veered off track when somehow we believed that pharmaceutical medications, with all their side effects and placebo effects and risks, were the only way to treat our ills.

They’re not, much of the world uses essential oils, and has for thousands of years. The Magi brought frankincense and myrrh to baby Jesus. How exceptional is that?

Is there research on them? Oh yeah! More and more regular MDs are promoting and using them; here’s both examples and resources for you to use if you’re interested in EO’s for your health.

Wintergreen Oil for pain relief: why? wintergreen oil contains compounds called “methyl salicylate”; menthyl salicylate is an integral ingredient of nearly every anti-arthritic and analgesic balm for muscle and joint pain that is currently available on the market.

Here’s a study from Pub Med showing methyl salicylate’s incredibly similar effects to aspirin in an anti-platelet (blood thinning) study for heart disease sufferers. Wow! Aspirin’s really rough on the stomach, how wonderful to have an alternative that’s not.

Oregano Oil: anti-bacterial/fungal/viral/parasitic. This one’s a powerhouse. From Dr. Mercola:

Yesterday morning I sliced my hands in 2 places cutting peaches. We were planning on spending the whole afternoon in the Shenandoah River, paddle boarding. I applied oregano oil before we left to each cut, and brought it with me in a cooler with an ice pack, so I could apply it again after we got out. The river’s full of bacteria, so I protected myself.

For more science on Oregano oil, go here, and here. That second link is to 33 Pub Med studies on Oregano oil and it’s effectiveness on everything from bacteria to candida to encouraging liver regeneration after hepatitis. Seriously!

Shelby tends to get stomach aches and nausea; ginger oil has become our #1 go to for it. We dose it 2 ways: rubbing some on her stomach, or putting a little swipe of the oil on the inside of her cheek. It’s fast and it works. Ginger chews and real ginger are fantastic also, but when you’re nauseous, it can be hard to get that stuff down.

Girlfriends, if your mom argues with you about this, tell her the rules have changed since her kids were young.

Anyway, what to do when your child has an ear ache? Garlic oil and tea tree oil. We used these last year on Shelby and they worked FAST. Check out Dr. Axe’s protocol here.

Hopefully I’ve piqued your interest, and if you’ve clicked on any of the links, you’ll see that Essential Oils aren’t woo-woo, at all. I really really encourage you to learn as much as possible about them, because I’m barely scratching the surface in this Post.

Let me wrap it up with my Skin Care Routine, which is ALL about the essential oils and other fats.

I’m 50, I went through Menopause about a year and a half ago; I spend a lot of time outside. Preface: I’m not saying this because I’m proud, I’m saying this because I’m pleased: my skin looks pretty good. I think it’s because I quit using soap and all conventional products years ago, and just started washing my face with an organic scrub once a day, and using only organic lotions. I think not slathering chemicals on my skin was a good start. But two winters ago, I began getting little lines on my lips and checks; panic sunk in. I quit the organic lotions and started using homemade coconut oil/shea butter/cocoa butter/olive oil and Essential Oils.

The lines REVERSED. REALLY!! I’m not saying I have the skin of a 20 something ( I live with three 20-somethings, they have a freshness…) but I don’t have (big/many) wrinkles yet! ( I also added way more fat to my diet, and gelatin/collagen – critical to skin formation.)

What I use after my homemade lotion: Rose Hip Serum, Clary Sage, Geranium Oil, and Frankincense. I use the serum every night, but the oils I rotate nightly. I’ve also used Carrot oil, and Myrrh. I’ll probably change this up as I continue to age, and learn more. But right now, it’s totally working for me. If you want to read more about skin and EO’s, check here, and here, and here.

Again, I want to say I’m just scratching the surface, but Essential Oils are so fun and effective and – for myself and my girls – addicting! I’ve made sure all my daughters have their own Essential Oil stockpiles for both home, school, and travel, and that they know how to use them. The more we learn and use them, the more we want to learn and use them.

What brand do I recommend? A bunch. I started with DoTerra, which along with Young Living are the two biggest names in EO’s. However, they’re not the only names. I buy from my local health food store, Natural Market, whom I trust to examine their vendors authenticity; but I have other brands I trust also. Right now, Plant Guru is one of my favs.

Take your health into your own hands! We spend more money on our health through medications and doctors and surgery’s and procedures THAN ANY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, AND YET WE’RE THE SICKEST AND THE FATTEST – IN. THE. WORLD.

To me, that means it’s time for a change. Besides, who doesn’t want to look and feel better?

I’m away at my annual fitness convention, the DCAC, So Fun! I’m here with my sister Christy, who’s a trainer and pilates instructor; and my daughter Macy, – I love it! Macy plans on becoming a yoga teacher after graduation, and this place is a great intro to the industry.

I’ve been in this business for 28 years. Things have changed! We’re having a greater awareness of why we need to exercise, which I’ve written about in a few recents Posts, here, and here. We all know we’re in a stressed filled environment, and that exercise helps that, tremendously.

Why do so many still pursue the 6 Pack? Why is weight loss still the number one goal of new gym members? Smart marketing; promising weight loss hooks people.

It’s a lie, trust me, because weight loss and 6 packs come from the kitchen, not the gym. It’s FOOD! Food is so important! Not just for losing weight or getting lean, but for how we feel day to day.

You know my mantra: eat clean proteins, good fats, a TON of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts, some beans, good dairy if you tolerate it, and stay far away from flours, sugar, chemicals, and hydrogenated fats.

But about that 6 Pack, and weight loss: what negative goals, honestly! Exercising to pursue those intents is just so…….. gloomy, and stressful! Delete! Exercise for your mind. Exercise for your mood. Exercise for your longevity and immune system and hormones.

It’s the same with eating well; eat Real Whole Foods because you’ll feel so darned good afterwards!

Guess what happens if we eat well and exercise every day? We lose weight. We become healthier, we feel more energetic, we’re happier, we cope with stress better, and we sleep better. Why would we NOT eat right and exercise everyday? It’s the consistency of our good habits, the repetition, that make us who we are.

Back to my conference:) Have any of you ever taken Piloxing Barre? O.M.G! What fun!

August 2, 2015 /
Debbie / Comments Off on Did the dog eat your workout shoes? Scarred from Gym Class?

I’m a tough love – no excuses type person when it comes to doing what I’m supposed to be doing. If you need a kick in the pants and some “how-to’s” to make Daily Workouts a part of your life, this Post is for you. (FYI: I LOVE kicks in the pants, and make sure I get one most days of the week. The ability to be consistent doesn’t just happen, you know.)

(That pic is Macy and her boyfriend Will practicing Acro Yoga. Don’t try this at home without a professional! Other pics: Amanda and Ian ending summer soft ball season; Shelby and friend Christy just climbed a volcano mountain; Meg doing a handstand; Mark lifting.)

When it comes to working out, the facts are, most of us don’t, and it’s killing us. Here’s some stats:

* only 1 in 3 children get any physical activity in a day

* less than 5% of adults get 30 minutes of physical activity every day

In other words, it’s time to get serious about making exercise, or movement, as normal and routine as brushing our teeth, because our life, and our children’s lives, depend on it.

Don’t worry, I know you’re busy! I know you have jobs and commutes and kids and injuries. I know some of you hate exercising, or getting sweaty, or having other people see you exercising or getting sweaty. That’s okay! That’s a little hurdle to jump over, and you can do that!

I had a nutrition client who told me we could never, ever talk about exercise, because she had “exercise induced anxiety”, and the mere mention could send her into a panic attack.

I got her moving, I can get you moving too.

Did you catch the word, “moving”? Because that was important. Start using that word, because it’s more important that we move every day than that we do formal exercise. Our body was created to move and be physically active, not to do Dodge Ball or Hip Hop or run an Ultra, although, if you love doing those things – Good For You! Keep it up, that’s great!

I brought up Dodge Ball because it’s from Gym Class, and Gym Class creates a lot of nightmares, or permanent brain scarring, for many.

If that’s you, work on deleting those memories. Moving every day doesn’t mean shame, embarrassment, and being the last one picked. Moving’s just moving, and it feels so good!

Here’s some suggestions:

* Buy a Fit Bit, Up band, or any of those great trackers. It’s so fun to watch your steps accumulate! If I get towards the end of the day and I’m not at 10,000 steps, my brain clicks on to “solutions to get to 10,000”. Seriously. I jog in place while I’m walking my little dog, I water my plants, I walk down the driveway and back, I suggest a walk after dinner; I’ve even run in place in the bathroom because I’m at 9800 and I have to feel that 10,000 buzz on my wrist before bed.

Apparently, I’m not the only one. One consistent statistic that’s come from the trackers is that they do inspire people to get up and move more. I think they’re worth the investment, which at this point, isn’t that big. The cheaper bands start around $50, which is a lot cheaper than the average Northern Virginia hospital stay, which is around $9,000, or paying for statin or diabetes drugs every month.

* Find something that’s fun. Please, don’t life weights (yet!) if you hate to lift weights. You do need muscle resistance, but there’s always yoga, pilates, biking or spin, home videos or You Tubes with planks and wall squats. Does boxing look fun? Marshal arts? Zumba? They are fun! You can even do them with your kids – bam! 2 birds with one stone.

* Make a date to workout with a friend. Call her/him, state a time and a place, and then put it on your calendar. When we make a commitment to someone else, we’re more likely to follow through.

* Too tired to workout? Listen: Working Out Gives You Energy – Honest. It’s so hard to convince people who don’t workout that this is true, but it is. Here’s the trick: find something Fun, and Not Too Hard. That’s how you start.

Heck, even for fit and trained people, we need to have days of “Not Too Hard”. What does that mean? It’s different for all of us, and it’s different for individuals on a day to day basis.

“Not too hard” for a Professional Athlete is completely different for the recreational athlete. “Not too hard” for anyone can be a day to day determination. Quit stressing about definitions; it’s not Gym Class and no one’s judging you. Focus on yourself, and doing what’s good and healthy for your body and mind.

I finished a great book called SPARK, and the author presents very compelling evidence that for some, depression/anxiety is actually CAUSED by not exercising.He presents studies that show our brain and body were created to thrive through movement.

* Harness the power of group energy, or in other words, join a gym or a club. Keep Reading!! It’s not scary – honest. I’ve worked in gyms for 28 years now, and I’ve heard it all: everyone’s looking at me, everyone’s got friends, there’s too many cliques, blah blah blah blah blah.

Stop it. You’re wrong. (And if you’re actually right and you’re at the rare Snobby, Unfriendly gym, find another one!) Here’s the facts:

Most people at the gym are getting in and getting out asap. There’s a nursery. There’s trainers to teach you how to use the equipment. There’s several activities to chose from. Some people use the gym as their social scene, but not most people, but so what? NO ONE is judging you. Everyone’s there just worrying about themselves, like you should be.

Fear of judgement or looking dumb is a personal insecurity that’ll keep you from doing many fun things in life. Don’t allow it.

* Group classes or small group training are incredibly beneficial: you get to absorb and use the energy of the other people and/or the instructor.

I give off a ton of good energy! So do a bunch of people who take my class. Energy is very real; we’re made out of protons and electrons which are atoms with negative and positive charges.

Quantum physics tells us – through very real, quantifiable science – that our personal energy is real. Ever walked into a room and known immediately that “something was wrong”? Or conversely, felt someone’s joy? Of course you have!

That’s what it’s like in a group fitness room, or in any fun group, even a group in someone’s home or a church or a community center. Throw off your fear ( you are a grown-up now, right? ) and join in!

* Pack your bag the night before. For some, this is critical. Mark and I do this every single night, and we’re dedicated exercisers. We do it because we know our mornings are busy enough; taking 5 minutes to gather our workout clothes, and anything we need for a shower and to change into afterwords, really makes a big difference.

* Sometimes, my daughters have slept in their workout clothes! That way they can just roll out of bed and get to it.

* Tell yourself Positive Statements about exercising: “I can’t wait to feel good and alert and ready for my day.” or “That lunch time walk/workout will make me so awake in the afternoon.” or “I can’t wait to walk/workout after work today, I’ve been sitting so long, and I’ll avoid the rush hour traffic.” or “I’m setting a great example for my kids.”

* If you like to “go it alone”, either on walks or stationary machines, then read a book, listen to music/podcasts/radio shows, study, or watch movies or TV series. (We have a guy at our gym who uses bungie cords to strap a DVD player on the cardio machines, and he just goes to town.) Look forward to the time because you “get” to do these things.

Here’s the bottom line: Sitting’s the New Smoking. Inactivity is literally killing us. Our kids are predicted to be even bigger and sicker than we are. Moving, every single day, is undeniably vital to our physical and mental well-being. We’re grown-ups. We can make ourselves do what we know we’re supposed to do. We have a brain: we can make ourselves enjoy exercise if we choose too, so choose to.

If you can fit in something formal, like a class, do it. If you can fit in walking up and down the stairs in your building 3 times during the day, do it. If you can take your dog on 2 big walks, do it. If you need to strap a baby on your back and push more in the stroller, do it. Just quit letting your days go by without moving. Pledge to yourself right now, that TODAY, you move.

Mark has a great phrase: “No one ever regrets a workout.” That’s so true!

Potatoes, corn, carrots, plantains, bananas, beans,…wow, they sure do cause confusion. Years ago, Dr. Atkins came out with his first book and completely demonized these foods by lumping them in with grains and sugars.

It was a great book, and he had a TON of research behind his initial recommendations, which were that if you’re overweight and want to lose, cut waaay down on the carbs, and consume lots of protein and fat. He’s right. Crappy carbs will not only put weight on us – and our kids – but they’re the perfect vehicle for: inflammation, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, neurological conditions, ADD, ADHD, skin issues, and just about every disease out there. Crappy carbs cause an Inflammatory Environment in our body – and our kids bodies.

Crappy Carbs are Evil.

But are those Real Whole Foods I listed above “Crappy Carbs”? No. But that doesn’t mean you get to eat them. Sorry. The real answer is, “It depends.” What do they do to your blood sugar after you eat them? There’s an easy way to find out: buy a blood sugar kit, aka, a Glucometer.

IT’S SO FUN – honest! You might think Glucometers are just for diabetics, but they’re not. Anyone can buy a kit in any drugstore or Walmart, or off Amazon, anywhere.

If you’re a weight loss client of mine, you probably already own one. If you’re not a client, but a blog reader, buy one today. Here’s why.

When blood sugar rises above “normal”, (normal is between 80 – 100, but some labs have lowered that value to 70 – 90), the pancreas releases the hormone INSULIN. Insulin is an anabolic, building hormone. Insulin takes the excess blood sugar, the amount that sends the value over “normal”, and stuffs a little in our muscle cells (the empty ones), a little in the liver-glycogen storage (if it’s low) and then…….turns all the rest of the excess into FAT/triglycerides, and stores them in the fat cells.

How does Blood Sugar get above normal? EASY. Every single carbohydrate we eat becomes blood sugar in our gut. EVERY. SINGLE. CARB. Whether it’s from a grain, pure sugar, fruit, veggies, beans, nuts, whatever. The carbohydrate in those foods is reduced to Glucose. That’s the gut’s job: break food down to chemical molecules so our cells can use it. All carbs become glucose and fructose, 2 tiny, simple sugars that fit in cells easily. (Today, we’re just talking about glucose; fructose is evil too! More on that later.)

How much blood sugar is too much? If we weight 150 pounds, we have about 4.7 liters of blood. “Normal” blood sugar – a measurement of 85 on the glucometer – equals 4 grams of sugar in the whole body. 4 Grams. 4 Grams. That’s 16 calories of carb (1 gram = 4 calories). More than that, and the conversion of sugar/glucose to fat/triglycerides happen.

A medium French Fry has 47 g of sugar (all carbs break down to sugar).

A can of coke has 39 g of sugar.

Krave Jerky Lime Chile has 39 g of sugar per package.

1 cup of pasta has 43 g of sugar/carbs.

1 cup of orange juice 27 g of sugar.

Those are all obvious Crappy Carbs; the starches become sugar/glucose very very quickly and go from gut to blood stream fast. But the real reason they’re Crappy is because they’re highly, highly processed and have no nutritional value at all. None. They’re so anti-good for us they’re poison!

Conventional wisdom tries to tell us that pasta has B vitamins, or french fries from McDonalds are vegetables. Bull Crap. Those B vitamins – added/fortified – back into the pasta, were made in a factory in China from synthetic materials. And those Mc D’s french fries? 19 ingredients!! Gross! That’s not real! Read their ingredient list, and several others, here. Please, read it. Our kids eat this stuff, and our kids are getting sicker and fatter and sadder than ever.

It’s. The. Food.

So what about YOU, and ME, and potatoes, or corn, or plantains, or all these other starchy fruits and veggies? How does that affect our blood sugar since we know they’re carbohydrates?

I don’t know how they affect you; I know how they affect me because I’ve pricked my finger and tested a million times in the past 5 years. Buy the glucometer and test yourself. They’re cheap and they’re easy to use. Prick your finger 90 minutes after a meal (peak blood sugar), and look at the number. See how your oatmeal or your pasta or your crackers affected you.

And see how a meal of corn or potatoes or bananas or beans, or any high carb fruit or veggie, affects you.

Five years ago, I had pretty fluctuating blood sugar. I considered myself “low carb” because I ate a lot of “low carb” foods: Kashi Go Lean, Low Carb Tortillas, Low Carb Bread, Low Carb Ice Cream, Low Carb Cookies….. then I bought the glucometer. Wow. Did I get a wake up call. My blood sugars were way too high, and it scared me into action.

No more Low Carb Crap, just Real Whole Foods. Of course, I worried about the high carb fruits and veggies, and the glucometer showed that yes, they did raise my blood sugar too much. So I cut way back on them.

In the past 5 years I’ve changed and refined my diet – a lot. I eat more herbs and spices than ever – every day. I use essential oils. I’ve added more fat than I ever thought possible. I’ve managed to completely delete “cheat days” from my life (thank you God), I’ve become scared of processed foods to the degree that I’m literally afraid of them. I’ve joined several food co-ops, I go to a couple different farmers markets.

Last summer I went totally ketogenic for a few months.

In other words, I’ve taken several actions, consistently, for several years now, and guess what? Now when I take my blood sugar ( which I still do all the time – and I take my kids and Mark’s often also), it’s always good.

A few mornings a week I throw a banana into my smoothie – blood sugar stays low.

I eat potatoes or plantains for dinner at least 4 or 5 nights a week. The other night I measured before dinner, I was 78. After a dinner of roasted potatoes coated w butter, squash coated with olive oil and parm, a steak, and a piece of dark chocolate, I was 98.

I’VE BECOME SO DARN NORMAL. It’s awesome!

I believe you can become normal too, with persistence and consistence.

What’s normal? Normal is when you eat a real whole food, in normal amounts, in a normal diet full of nutrient dense foods loaded with good fats, some protein, and a ton of vegetables, and your body processes it just fine.

Your muscle and liver cells are open to the carbs and the fat both, you sleep well, you don’t feel sick, bloated or brain foggy – ever, and your energy and immune system hum.

By the way, as good as they look, 6 pack abs aren’t totally normal, especially for most women. Having some body fat – is normal. Being ripped, lean, and shredded, goes against most body types, and the actions needed to get there usually lower thyroid function, lower body fat to unhealthy levels, and mess up our sex and adrenal hormones.

Not normal.

How can you become normal? There’s only one way: change how your brain things about about your body and food. No more diet and weight loss focus, it doesn’t work. Focus on your health instead. Pledge that at least a few times a week you’re going to read something from Dr. Mercola or Suzy Cohen or Dr. Davis/Wheat Belly or if you’re interested in the science behind the Ketogenic Diet (because I really do believe it heals cells and the liver and reverses insulin resistance) check out Dr. Nally here.

Here’s my Cigarette Analogy: would you ever pick up a cigarette butt off the sidewalk and put it in your mouth? No! That would be disgusting, and there’d be no effort at all in resisting that urge. I want you to look at a slurpee or a box of cookies or a fast food burger and think: “I’d never put that in my mouth, that’s disgusting!”.

Here’s something that’s not disgusting, and it’s delicious! 2 Recipes, each I’ve had on here before, but they’re worth repeating. The first is my Sweet Potato Pizza – Oh My Gosh is it delicious!!

Chipotle Sweet Potato-Zucchini Pizza

1 large sweet potato
1 large green zuc, ring out water by twisting in a towel
1 heaping tbsp chipotle powder
3 eggs, beaten
5 tbsp coconut flour
1 tsp salt
Mix all ingredients in a bowl, and pat onto a pizza pan. Bake at 425 for 40 minutes. Top with tomato sauce and cheese ( and whatever else you want, I’ve done corn, cilantro, and peppers). Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes.

Roasted Potatoes – kids love this and it’s so much better than french fries-

July 18, 2015 /
Debbie / Comments Off on Are Your Meds Making You Sad, Overweight, and Sicker? Probably!

Have you ever considered that your muscle aches, brain fog, joint pain or other maladies could be caused by your medicines? Even weight gain can be a side effect from everyday meds. Disclaimer: I realize that sometimes medication is absolutely necessary; my #2 daughter is epileptic. This is about the bigger picture.

Keep reading for the nitty gritty details, and to see family pics that have absolutely nothing to do with this Post:) (Descriptions: Shelby and I were in NYC last weekend; Amanda started an Internship at the Epilepsy Foundation, and we celebrated Macy’s 21st birthday.)

Every year, prescription drugs cause over 81 MILLION adverse reactions and result in 2.7 million hospitalizations.

It hasn’t made us healthier. Despite 70% of the country on drugs, we have higher rates of chronic disease than almost every other country in the world, and the CDC predicts that every single disease, from heart disease to cancer to obesity, will continue to rise through 2030 at least.

We need to start drawing some common-sense correlations here.

Healthcare, which = drugs and doctors and hospitals, does NOT necessarily = healthy.

How many drugs site “ damage to the liver” on the side effect list? More than half? Who feels damage happening in their liver?? NO ONE. No. One. Statins cause damage to the liver. Auto-Immune drugs cause damage to the liver. Pain relievers (OTC and prescription) cause damage to the liver. Tylenol is the #1 cause of liver failure in the US; we give Tylenol to babies.

Liver damage brews for years before symptoms manifest.

Most diseases take about 15 years to manifest symptoms obvious enough to pinpoint the disease. Take diabetes T2, the diabetic doesn’t just become diabetic over night, or in a few months. It takes years of high blood sugar and corresponding high insulin to become diabetic.

Statins carry the risk of actually CAUSING diabetes T2. It’s on the side effect label. It’s on the commercials. It’s a real possibility. From PubMed: “Statin use is associated with a rise of fasting blood glucose in patients with and without diabetes. This relationship between statin use and rise in fasting blood glucose is in-dependent of age, aspirin use, beta-blockers, and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors.”

Other drugs also raise blood sugar: steroids, diuretics for high blood pressure and edema, some birth control pills, and decongestants.

Chronic high blood sugar and high insulin cause ED and glycation of the skin, aka, wrinkles and age spots. One doc on the Heart Summit called ED the “canary in the pants”. Consider these symptoms of Heart Disease, because they are.

Diabetes is predicted to affect about HALF our population by 2020 – that’s right around the corner. Diabetes is DANGEROUS, and EXPENSIVE. If we watched our carbs and meds, T2 is almost fully avoidable, and reversible.

What about Diabetes drugs, like Metformin, which force sugar into cells that have self-protectively shut? Metformin causes serious digestion issues. Gastro-paresis and GERD, here you come. Besides, God had those cell receptors shut for a reason, it’s not a mistake, it’s self protection for the cell.

What if your T2 has progressed to the point of Insulin, what then? Insulin, in excess (it’s “excess” if you’re a T2) is a caustic hormone. It zooms through the arteries causing inflammation and damage. AKA, Heart Disease.

What about a life style change instead of statins or diabetes drugs? After all, heart disease and diabetes are caused by our life style, which is our every day choices. To reverse or avoid them, stop eating grains, sugars, and chemicals, and start eating Real Whole Foods, sleep more, move more, and practice stress management.

If you take NSAIDS, please read this link. Apparently, the whole “COX-Inhibitor” action of the NSAID isn’t the advantage we’ve been lead to believe. Research has discovered that the inflammation they cause is then followed by repair. COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes unstick platelets and prevent clots. Blocking them with Advil or Celebrex (or other NSAIDs) encourages clots.

Birth control pills also cause blood clots. How many young women take both daily?

Is heart disease because your body is low in statins? Is pain because your body is low in NSAIDS? Is diabetes because your body is low in metformin? Nope.

We don’t get sick from a lack of drugs. Usually, we get sick because of our actions and choices. When soda, alcohol, bread, sugar, pasta, fast food, junk food, too little sleep and no focused attention on stress management, are a normal part of our life, of course we’re sick.

Why do we take so many drugs?

We’re one of 2 countries IN THE WHOLE WORLD, who actually allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to us, the consumer. In 1997, Congress revised a law allowing pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly without covering most of the possible side effects.

Numbers wise, seeing these advertisements has made us want drugs a whole lot more. We actually ASK our doctors for these drugs now, which is the whole goal of advertising.

In 1997, spending on ads was $280 million; by 2002, it was $2.8 BILLION. Now, it’s $3 BILLION. On average, if you take one prescription drug you’ll be exposed to 70 potential side effects. Some of the more commonly prescribed drugs average around 100 side effects each — and some drugs even carry over 500!

Back to my beginning: drugs can cause death and disease. Yes – sometimes they save a life, absolutely. But when we’re talking Chronic Disease, and that’s what MOST people are taking drugs for ( 88% of all health care spending is on Life Style/Chronic Diseases), the only thing that can really REVERSE a disease, and not just manage symptoms, is a Life Style Change. That’s it. Life Style Change.

Real Whole Food, Moving, Sleeping, and Stress Management. These are choices we need to make and focus on. Choices we need to teach our children.

Our health is the result of our actions and choices and even our thoughts. We have power over all that, let’s take it.

More benefits: exercise, any exercise that makes our muscle move and feel a little stress, causes the muscle cells to make special proteins that go through our blood, into our brain and GROW IT.

Parents, this applies to kids too.

When our muscles move, they create a protein called BDNF ( brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor). BDNF literally goes to the brain neurons, and waters and fertilizes them.

When our muscles move, our neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin, GABA) are “balanced”. The percent of studies showing that exercise reduces anxiety and depression better than every single drug on the market? About 100%. With no negative side effects.

As a matter of fact, looking at us biologically and ancestrally, we’ve been created to move (forage/hunt for food, shelter, mates) to stimulate productive brain activity. Moving makes us smarter and better able to cope with life.

Several studies show that if we want to learn new skills or facts, exercise first. It stimulates pathways that allow us to build memories/learn in our brain. There’s a caveat though. If you think you’ll do your learning while you exercise, say, studying on the elliptical or treadmill ( one of my preferred methods when I went to Nutritional Therapy school), keep the exercise “steady state”, and not anaerobic.

Exercise that’s too hard temporarily shuttles nutrients away from our learning centers; exercise that’s easily doable increases nutrients to the learning centers. That’s just a word of caution on learning while exercising, not a warning against hard exercise, because the benefits of hard exercise are numerous.

Or not. It depends on how you feel about it.

Here we get to exercise and stress. I said that of the thousands of studies comparing all the drugs on the market to exercise for relief from anxiety and depression, exercise wins every time. Hands down.

When we feel “stress”, we’re actually feeling the results from a whole bunch of stress “chemicals”. (we’re a chemistry set, not a math equation). Whether our stress is real or imaginary, from traffic or a fight with a spouse or an actual threat to our lives, the chemistry is the same.

When cortisol is in the blood, FAT CAN NOT BE BURNED, JUST STORED. In this state,our body actually tears apart muscle tissue and converts it to glucose/sugar to burn instead of using the fat in our butt.

We need to manage our stress, and exercise does that! Most of the time.

Unfortunately, some people are so scared of exercise, so adverse to a whole – imaginary – negative scenario they’re created in their minds, that they have “Exercise Induced Anxiety”. I stole that from one of my clients who used that term to describe herself.

I get it. Gym class was traumatic for a lot of us. It left some scars. But I know former athletes who don’t like to workout anymore either. Their younger athletic years were formed by coaches and teammates telling them what to do and how. Independently exercising, which is pretty much Adult Exercise, isn’t appealing, or motivating, so they don’t do it.

The latest stats from the CDC on who exercises show us that only 20.4% of adults over 18 exercise regularly.

No wonder we have 70% overweight and on pharmaceutical drugs in this country!

What to do? Be determined. Set your mind that you’re going to move every day and you’re going to like it. Honestly. It’s that simple. Oh, and have a plan. Write it down. Use alarms and calendars and verbalize to friends and family your intentions.

If you already work out every day, you’re golden. If you struggle with with either fitting exercise in or moving at all, listen up.

1) Pick something that doesn’t sound scary:

-walk with a friend or a kid or a dog

-play a game in the yard with your kids

-set an alarm on your phone and walk up and down the stairs (in your office or home) 4 or 5 times a day

-set an alarm on your phone and do a wall squat or plank 4 or 5 times a day

2) Pick something fun:

-join Zumba

-join a weight lifting class

-join a beginner yoga class

-join a beginner group fitness class

3) Set Your Self Up For Success

-pack your clothes the night before

-pack a bag and water bottle the night before

-pick a sport or a class or an activity that’s appropriate for your fitness level and not something you’re going to be so sore and fatigued afterwards that you never want to come back

-put it on your calendar, and then stick to the schedule. If you have kids that need to be included, either driving them to the gym or having them with you, CONSIDER THAT. It takes time to get kids in the car – out of the car – into the gym. Learn to become a Time Master, and teach them how to do it too. That’s a pretty crucial skill to have.

Honestly, we can’t afford NOT to exercise or move. Our body was designed by God for us to move.

Want a great book to inspire you to get off your butt and sweat a little it? Spark, by John J. Ratey, MD. It’s loaded with information that even I’ve never seen before, and I read everything about exercise that I can get my hands on.

One more reason to exercise: Exercise GIVES us energy, it doesn’t steal it or drain it, it creates it. Who doesn’t want more energy?